Shielding garments are known in the art, which are made of stainless steel yarns twisted with cotton yarns. Nevertheless, these garments suffer from a number of drawbacks: their electrical resistance, as measured between any two points, is relatively high; when they are being tested, they must be “triggered” to electrical conduction by injection of a considerable electric current (to overcome the inherent semiconductive barriers of the material) to trigger their electrical conductivity; furthermore the rigidity of stainless steel yarns leads to rigid and uncomfortable garments, that may hinder the movements of the operators, which will further reduce the operating safety margins; finally, these garments exhibit an apparent degradation of their conductive properties after a common washing cycle.
In an attempt to obviate these drawbacks, and to ensure compliance with the International Standard IEC 60895, the Applicant designed an improved shielding garment. Such shielding garment is disclosed in the international patent application by the Applicant hereof, which was published with number WO 2008/114294 and issued in Europe and in other countries. Thus, shielding garment comprises a first electrically conductive layer whose surface area is substantially equal to the surface area of the garment. The first electrically conductive layer is a textile product obtained from a conductive yarn comprising a polymeric core covered with a silver layer. Such textile product is obtained with the space between two adjacent yarns defining an electrical continuity area. A second layer, obtained from a second yarn, has flame-retardant properties and is obtained from a polyaramid fiber. The first and second layers are both provided in knit form ad are stably coupled together over the entire mutual contact surfaces of the two layers. The garment further comprises a hood and/or a visor and/or one or more collars, to also cover, and hence shield the nape and part of the face of the operator. These elements are integrated together. It shall be noted that the visor is of rigid type.